White House Garden--First Tomato?

I tried to find a recent update on the White House garden, but the last piece I found was a month ago. Inquiring minds want to know--do they have tomato plants, do they have a ripe tomato yet, is the White House hiding something?

Efficient Healthcare Bureaucracy

A factoid from the head of the Civil Service Commission--whoops--the Office of Personnel Management:

To spotlight one example of our increased responsibilities: in 1980, just under 50 million people were enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, and the programs were administered by 4,900 federal workers. Today, the agency has 4,600 workers - 7% fewer, and guess how many people are in Medicare and Medicaid. Almost 81 million. They're serving 64% more enrollees with 7% fewer Federal workers.

Merging with the Money Economy

We watched The Cave of the Yellow Dog last night. It's by the director of the Tale of the Weeping Camel. The subject is a family of Mongolian sheep/goat herders, living in a yurt. It's sort of filmed anthropology, with a wisp of a story (eldest daughter of the family wants a dog she found in a cave, father fears it's too feral and will lead wolves to the flock).

A couple things struck me:

• one of the issues in American history is the emergence of the market economy, when and how did it emerge? Here the family is mostly self-sufficient, but the father takes the hides of a couple sheep killed by wolves off to the city to sell, using an old motorcycle for transport, and bringing back a new plastic ladle. They also have a portable windmill/generator to provide juice for the electric light.
• Michael Pollan famously says we mostly eat corn in one form or another--these people eat milk in one form or another. (Nomads don't have gardens.)
  
• the family is torn between continuing its nomadic ways and perhaps moving to the city.
  

This links to an article on the future of the way of life.

Factoids That Are Surprising

From the comments on a post by MAtthew Yglesias (hat tip Marginal REvolution) on the military school system:

"it’s interesting to note that DoDEA educators have a very strong union, the schools are not subject to No Child Left Behind, and there is no merit-pay system."

The Perils of CSA--Cabbages Galore

The economist Brad DeLong writes a lively blog. I didn't know until this post his family was into community supported agriculture, which this week gave them four heads of cabbage. Now in the old days, in the old country, my great grandmother would have known how to preserve it (sauerkraut), but that's a lost art these days.

Les Metiers de la Bouche

Les locavores should all emigrate to France, so as to save the les metiers de la bouche: the professions which serve the mouth is my rough translation. Our trusted guide to French mores and society, Dirk Beauregard, interviews a local butcher who won the prize for being France's best butcher.

It's a very different food culture, or it was, since the butcher admits the French are going for convenience foods during the week. As I understand it, the French housewife would visit the market every day, getting fresh and local food, saving the energy required for refrigeration (I'm still amazed to see on British television refrigerators which are half size for us).

I'm not sure what sort of regulations French butchers face. If one can trust Walt Jeffries, France must be much less regulated than the U.S. would be under this bill. I wonder why the different food cultures--has France always been more compact and urban, leading to this consumption pattern, while the U.S. has been spread out, putting a premium on food storage and therefore more centralized butchers?

Snail Mail Hurting in France as Well

Dirk Beauregard posts about the problems the French postal service is facing. Doesn't mention cutting back to 5 days a week, as USPS is considering. Would postal employees like to wear a beret?

USDA Starts Blogging

On June 25th Secretary Vilsack initiated the USDA blog. Don't know how I missed it for so long.

Maybe it's because USDA never issued a press release on it. It sort of looks as if the impetus was the Recovery Act, not a USDA initiative on its own. Whatever the cause, I'm glad to see it. Always happy when high level program people show an interest in process and technology.

[Updated: I also see the CIO of USDA, Chris Smith, started a blog. But he has only one post and no comments, whereas Vilsack's blog has a reasonable number of posts, and a few comments.]

EU Ag Payments Go to Non-Farmers

It's always nice to have company in one's problems. The NY Times reports here that EU agricultural payments often go to non-farmers and rich landowners. Even the Queen of England, who used to get payments from us as well, until the 1985 farm bill.

Books That Defeated Me--Drum

Kevin has a post with this title--the books which he started but couldn't finish--which has drawn lots of comments. It's amazing the variety of books which have defeated people. I guess people like to confess shameful secrets, such as never getting through Catcher in the Rye.

Some scholar might make something of this: what books do people feel they should read and end up failing. I didn't see anyone mentioning Jane Austin